Paul Pierce The NBA’s “Easiest” Good Player To Block?

Summer Reading: "The Art of a Beautiful Game" written by Chris Ballard of Sports Illustrated.

Ballard's book is one of the better recent basketball books that's been published. It was released in the Fall of 2009 but I just got to reading it now. I can't recommend it highly enough. While the chapters seem scattered all over the place, it doesn't interrupt the flow at all. While the book itself doesn't contain that much Celtics related material, there's plenty of great insights of the NBA in general. There is however, one interesting tidbit in Chapter 11.

Entitled: "Shot Blockers: A Rare Affection for Rejection," Ballard discusses the mindset of the shot blocker and what it takes to become a good shot blocker. He discusses how much Dwight Howard enjoys rejecting a shot 30 rows into the crowd, then contrasts Howard with Bill Russell, who perfected the blocked shot by tapping it to a teammate.

He touches upon Manute Bol's 8 blocked shots in one quarter and how Mark Eaton holds the NBA record for most blocks in a single game with 14. Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Ben Wallace, Emeka Okafor, Alonzo Mourning and newest Celtic Shaquille O'Neal expectedly get their due. The one little nugget I found interesting was how Utah's Andrei Kirilenko described Paul Pierce. Below is an excerpt from that chapter, discussing how shot blockers use the "bait-and-block" ploy to block a shot effectively:

This ploy, the bait-and-block, is one of many tricks of the trade. A primer might include these tips: 1) know your pump fakes (Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady are especially dangerous); 2) swat with the hand opposite the shooter's for better extension (a favorite of Ben Wallace's); 3) watch your man's jersey, not his eyes ("the eyes lie," warns Eaton); 4) beware the nearly unblockable floater of guards like Tony Parker (it's the blocker's mirage, there one second, gone the next); and 5) know who loves to get to the line (Utah's Andrei Kirilenko rates Boston's Paul Pierce as the easiest "good" player to block because Pierce is forever trying to get a shot off near the basket in hopes of getting to the free throw line, sometimes offering up easy block opportunities).

If you're an NBA player speaking strictly from your defensive instincts, this might be true about Pierce. Going by statistical data, Pierce ranked 77th in total shots blocked with a total of 50, tied with Andrew Bynum, Aaron Afflalo, Dirk Nowitzki and teammate Glen Davis. Here are the top 80 (from HoopData.com) based on players that played at least 40 games last season:

It should also be noted that in an earlier chapter that discusses the defensive capabilities of Shane Battier, Battier himself gives Pierce an "honorable mention" when ranking the toughest players to guard. He ranks Kobe, Wade, Brandon Roy, Manu Ginobili and LeBron James as the most difficult while giving honorable mentions to Pierce and Kevin Martin.

Pierce does like to do that thing where he drives and then just throws his arms up trying to get the call. Drives me crazy cuz it hardly ever works!

green8teen

you should check what those stats were like before the big 3, when pierce was the #only consistent scoring option. i think that’ll give a better idea if that is true.

Joey

Does that chart count only the 2009-2010 season or something else? Because I watched every Laker game last season and I don’t remember Kobe being block more than like 4 times, and I don’t think Bynum got blocked that much either since he’s 7′ and didn’t get a lot of shots with Gasol and Kobe there.

Pierce made Kirilenko cry a couple years ago because he couldn’t stop him, i’d take that comment with a grain of salt.

Lee in Oregon

Speaking of THE TRUTH, he still needs a legitimate b/u….it’s been reported that Portland would possibly take a first round pick for Rudy. If true, that’s a steal.
If not, maybe Tony Gaffney makes the team, as well as Harangody. T-Mac is about to sign Detroit, but since were assembling a 1995 All-star team, why not him too? Does anyone remember when he and Pierce were the the 2 best 2 guards in the East?

Adrian Mendoza

Dirk – is the at the guard from the 86-87 Celtics???

Steve

One thing on Pierce though. His leg injury was limiting his lift even late in the year. He was getting blocked much much more than his norm. So this table likely makes him seem worse than his normal rate. Late in the playoffs he was better but still not normal. That will hopefully be better next season. Glen Davis on the other hand has zero lift and may set records for being blocked unless he learns to pass more vs when he can get the shot off effectively. I like his energy and hustle though. But he needs to channel it more effectively.

Johnny

Looks like Glen Davis is far and away the leader in shots blocked per minutes played.